Spanish

• Instructors
• Courses offered
• The Casa Hispana
• Study abroad
• More information

There are more than 350 million Spanish speakers worldwide. The international and business importance of Spanish cannot be emphasized enough, as evidenced by the recently negotiated international trade agreements and the constant demand for people who are proficient in Spanish. The wide range of Spanish courses and the variety of cultural experiences offered at Nazareth College will better prepare students to meet all personal and professional goals.

Instructors

	Prof. Edward Malinak has been teaching at Nazareth College since 1974. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky. In addition to teaching courses in Spanish language and culture, he also teaches classes in his literary specialization of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque Spanish literature. Some of Prof. Malinak's awards include: Ruth E. Wasley Distinguished Teacher Award (Post-Secondary Education) from the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers, 1992 Certificate of Leadership from the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, 1991 and 1992 Spanish Heritage Award, 1985 Dr. Malinak has also presented numerous papers at conferences on Spanish pedagogy, culture, and literature. Additionally, he has been very active in the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers where he has served on the Board of Directors and on several committees. He is also coordinator of Nazareth College students of Spanish who serve as Spanish Interpreters for the Monroe County Board of Elections on Primary and Election Day.
	Hilda Chacón is Associate Professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature at Nazareth College, in Rochester, NY. She has directed the Women’s Studies Program and the Emerson Language Lab –after leading the writing of a grant that allowed Nazareth College to receive $300,000 for the creation of this pedagogical tool. She participates in the Honors Program, the Women’s Studies Program, and the Fulbright Program of Nazareth College. Her first career is as a journalist and she worked on radio, TV, and press media in Costa Rica, her native country during the decade of 1980’s. She obtained her Ph.D. in Contemporarhy and Indigenous Literatures and Cultures of Latin America at The Ohio State University (1999), with a dissertation on urban chronicles in Mexico post-NAFTA. She has published in CiberLetras (online-USA), DataGramaZero (online-Brazil), Letras Femeninas (USA), LASA FORUM (USA), Revista de Literatura Mexicana Contemporánea (UTEP), Confluencia: Revista Hispánica de Cultura y Literatura (University of Northern Colorado), Con-textos: Revista de Semiótica Literaria (Universidad de Medellín, Colombia). She has also published as a contributer to One Wound for Another: Testimonios Latinos in the US, 11 September 2001- 11 January 2002 (UNAM-CISAN), as well as to the second volume of this publication Speaking desde las heridas. Testimonios transfronterizos/ Transborder testimonios through Cyberspace (11 de septiembre de 2001-11 de marzo de 2007) (UNAM-CISAN, in print). She also wrote a book chapter, “Political Cartoons in Cyberspace: Rearticulating Mexican and US Cultural Identity in the Global Era”, for the book Mexico Reading the US (Vanderbilt UP, in print).   Her areas of research interest are: testimonial narratives: facts and fiction; the Internet and contestatory cyberspace; mass media and cultural re-appropriations in the margins of postmodernity –including equivalent debates in Latin America; articulation of gender identities in the global era; Latina/o-Chicana/o literatures.   She also has some acknowledged creative writing and has been editor for Grafemas, the electronic bulletin of the Asociación Internacional de Letras y Culturas Femeninas Hispánicas, AILCFH (2004).
	Dr. Cristina Carrasco is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at Nazareth College. She holds an M.A in Comparative Literature from the University of Iowa (2001) and a Ph.D. in Hispanic Literature from the University of Texast at Austin (2007). Her research interests are 20th and 21st century Spanish narrative, cinema and culture. Her current scholarly work focuses on representations of immigration, domestic abuse, gentrification and transnationalism in recent Spanish film. She teaches special topics courses on post-Franco film and narrative, contemporary Hispanic cinema as well as survey courses on Spanish literature, Peninsular culture and civilization, and advanced conversation and composition. Dr. Carrasco is the Director of the study abroad program in her native Valencia, Spain.

Courses Offered

Spn 103, 104. Intermediate Spanish
Intermediate level work in the language, adding more extensive practice in the four basic language skills. A review of the grammar. Continued emphasis on communicative proficiency. Expansion of the study of Hispanic cultures. Prerequisites: Spn 101, 102 or department approval.
3 credits each semester, 3 hours

Spn 105, 106. Survival Spanish
Extensive conversation practice, with emphasis on "survival" situations that tourists and other travelers normally encounter in Spanish speaking countries. Focus is on communication of the message, rather than on grammatical perfection. Prerequisite: Spn 104 or equivalent (usually four semesters).
3 credits each semester, 3 hours

SPN 314 –Border Cultures: Mexico and the United States

**This course includes a service-learning component with the migrant workers communities in the greater Rochester area**

** The course also includes a transnational web-based blog tool, facilitated by Dr. Claire Joysmith (CISAN-UNAM/ Center for the Study of North America –National Autonomous University of Mexico), that will allow Nazareth College students to exchange ideas an views on their experiences and readings with Mexican students**

This is an upper level course for majors in Spanish and qualified minors. The course explores the important relation of the USA and Mexico through literary works, films, cartoons, and cyberspace tools produced by Mexican and Chicano authors on the subject, along with and an international interactive blog that will connect students at Nazareth with students at the UNAM in Mexico. The course will also include a service-learning component with the migrant workers community of the greater Rochester area.

In the border between USA and Mexico the first and the third world share a conflictive/collapsing frontier where citizens in both sides manage to come to terms with their deep cultural differences, in a vivid example of what Homi H. Bhabha calls the negotiation of “cultural terms” in The Location of Culture (1995).

In spite of the heated debates in the USA Congress about the necessity to “keep off” the southernmost neighbors, Mexico remains as one of the most important commercial partners of the USA, as Carlos Fuentes demonstrates in A New Time for Mexico (1997); even more, a good quantity of the USA business depends entirely on the migrant workers labor that comes from Mexico –which is the case of the state of New York.

Through the reading of the texts studied in the course, students will learn about the controversial debate about “la frontera” (the border) from a scholarly point of view. Through the writings of these authors, “la frontera” will seem a rather mobile, porous, and at times fictional separation between two nations that share a common continent and a common History.

The course will serve to generate a better understanding of the relation between the USA and Mexico, helping students to immerse knowledgeably in current discussions about migration and economics. In addition, the course will foster an interest in students about the History shared by Latin American countries and the USA.

3 credits each semester, 3 hours

Spn 201, 202. Advanced Spanish Conversation and Composition
Intensive practice in conversation and in writing, working from intermediate toward advanced level of proficiency. Attention to idiomatic expressions and a thorough review of the grammar. Short literary and cultural readings.
3 credits each semester, 3 hours

Spn 203G. Civilization and Culture of Spain
This course helps students develop awareness and understanding of the culture of Spain through its history, geography, visual arts, politics, sociology, and music, as well as its people, languages, traditions, and daily customs.
3 credits, 3 hours

Spn 204. Civilization and Culture of Latin America
A study of geography, history, politics, current events, the arts, literature, culture and way of life in Latin America.
3 credits each semester, 3 hours

Spn 301. Medieval and Renaissance Literature
(Perspectives II Literature course)
Survey beginning with "Poema de Mio Cid." Emphasis on representative texts: "El Conde Lucanor," "Libro de Buen Amor" and "La Celestina" through the 15th century.
3 credits each semester, 3 hours

Spn 302. Golden Age: Renaissance and Baroque
Survey, from the 15th century to the beginning of Neoclassicism. Selected authors include Garcilaso, Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Calderon and Tirso de Molina.
3 credits each semester, 3 hours

Spn 305. Romanticism to the Present
(Perspectives II Literature course)
This course introduces the student to the various literary movements of the XIX and XX century in Spain; pre-romanticism, romanticism, costumbrismo, realism, naturalism, generation of 98, avant-garde and the postwar novel.  In the course of the semester, we will critically discuss both canonical and some non-canonical texts and authors that have been largely ignored by mainstream literary history.
3 credits each semester, 3 hours

Spn 401. Senior Seminar: Contemporary Narratives of Latin America
In the last 50 years, Latin America has produced five Nobel Prizes of Literature: Octavio Paz (Mexico), Miguel Angel Asturias (Guatemala), Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia), Pablo Neruda (Chile) and Gabriela Mistral (Chile). The cultural and historical connections between the USA and Latin America are strong. This correlation becomes especially significant in the times of the globalization era, when over 10% of the population of the USA have some cultural background from Latin American countries, predominantly.

This is a capstone survey course that analyzes the production of some of the most important contemporary writers of Latin America, while introducing the students to theoretical debates in the MLA, and critical thinking about these narratives.

The textual production that is currently taking place in Spanish speaking countries of the Americas is significant and has captured the attention of main scholars in the USA and the rest of the world. It also shows the intertwine-ness of the Spanish language inherited from the Conquistadores with Native Indigenous and African traditions, terms, expressions, and contestatory ways to construct meaning.

Students will learn about the diverse contexts and historical moments in which these texts were produced. Utilizing history, debates on cultural studies of Latin America, films and music, alongside the narrative texts -novels, short stories, and urban chronicles-, students will develop critical thinking on regards these genres. They will also achieve a better understanding of the huge and successful literary production of Latin America.

This course has been designed to meet the curricular needs of students pursuing a major/ minor in Spanish, as well as for any other students who may be fluent in Spanish and are interested in the topic.

3 credits each semester, 3 hours

Spn 306.19th Century Writings of Latin America
This course provides an overview of the novela genre in Latin America, a significant cultural production of the Romanticism movement during the 19th Century. The course introduces students to theoretical concepts on 19th Century literary productions of Latin America and analyzes specific important texts of the period. The course emphasizes a critical view of the representations of the "national subject" as portrayed in these novelas, which were published mainly in newspapers "por entregas".  A common pattern in these texts is the aim to normalize the ideal behavior of the new citizens of the young national republics, now independent from Europe.  Many of these novelas were written with the aim to be read out loud in public places, so the texts reveal a performative level in their narrative structure.

The course involves the reading of key representative novelas of the Romanticism era in Spanish America and aims to develop students' critical thinking skills, as well as to promote a better appreciation of literature and cultures of Latin America. It also introduces students to the theoretical debate in the MLA about nationness and the “imagined nation” as Benedict Anderson proposes in his work Imagined Communities (1987).

3 credits each semester, 3 hours

Spn 402. Post-Franco Narrative and Film
This seminar will focus on recent Spanish cinema and fictional texts as cultural products.  We will explore questions of national and regional identities, immigration and exile, women's roles in contemporary society, globalization and historical memory, among other themes.  We will focus on the detailed analysis of literary and filmic texts that reflect the development of Spanish culture from the times of post-Francosim to the present day.
3 credits each semester, 3 hours

Spn 307, 308. Commercial Spanish
An advanced language and area studies course, specializing in the terminology of business, economic structures, import-export trade, reports and business correspondence.
3 credits each semester, 3 hours

Spn 457. Curriculum Methodology, Middle School and Senior High
(See Frn 457.)
3 credits, 3 hours

Spn 309 Hispanic Images on Screen

The course will consist of a critical overview of Hispanic cinema from the last half-century, with a particular emphasis on the last decade.  Along with selected critical texts on current issues in the spanish speaking world, we will explore such questions as women's roles in contemporary society, immigration and exile, globalization, and experiences of war and violence, among other themes.  This course will take a transatlantic approach, examining how these issues are imagined within Spain as well as by filmmakers and writers from Latin America, and study the sociological, cultural and political forces that have inspired such cinematic representations.

3 credits each semester, 3 hours

Spn 479. Student Teaching Middle School and Senior High School
The field-based practicum in Spanish.
6 credits

Spn 312. Advanced Grammar & Styistics

Advanced language and grammar course specializing in an in-depth study of grammatical structures, stylistics and translation, with extensive exercises in writing.

3 credits each semester, 3 hours

Spn 485, 486. Independent Study
By invitation of the department. Special literary and linguistic problems, under direction of a member of the language staff.
3 credits each semester, 3 hours

Lan 300. Study Abroad
Study abroad required for all foreign language majors and modern foreign language majors.
0 credits, 0 hours

The Casa Hispana

The Spanish House was founded in 1976 as a dormitory for Spanish majors at Nazareth College. The building was later converted into a Hispanic Cultural Center. The Casa Hispana is an active place where majors, non-majors, and community members enjoy films, conversation, art exhibits and a variety of events relating to their shared interest in the culture of Spain and the Latin American countries.

The Casa Hispana houses the offices of the Spanish program faculty, a library, and classrooms. In June 1995, the Casa was expanded to provide a spacious multi-purpose room, and an enlarged patio with handicap accessibility.